Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr Proves Unbeatable as Ever in Knoxville
It’s not supposed to be that easy.
Pregnancy and childbirth change a woman’s body, and getting back to something resembling full form takes time, even for the best athletes in the world.
But Tia-Clair Toomey-Orr has officially defied these laws.
The six-time Fittest Woman on Earth — competing 12 months after giving birth to her daughter, Willow — was arguably more dominant than ever at the 2024 North America East Semifinal in Knoxville, TN.
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- She finished the weekend with five event wins and one third-place finish. She racked up 594 out of a possible 600 points along the way, 78 points more than second-place finisher Alexis Raptis.
In 2022, Toomey-Orr won all six events at the Torian Pro Semifinals; however, this weekend’s jam-packed field in Knoxville was arguably a more competitive, deeper field than the one in Australia that year.
- The year before, in 2021, Toomey-Orr finished with 588 points, six less than her postpartum performance this weekend.
What Toomey-Orr is saying: In an on-floor interview after Event 2, Toomey-Orr admitted it was a challenge to attend last year’s Semifinals as a spectator, but this only made her hungrier.
- “I have been looking forward to it for a whole year,” she said with a smirk.
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When talking about how motherhood changed her life, she said: “It has definitely changed it for the best. Being a parent is just the most rewarding thing in the world. And to be able to come back on the competition floor, which I never thought I would be interested in doing after having a child, has definitely been really rewarding, as well.”
The big picture: While there’s no doubt that Toomey-Orr is the G.O.A.T., there may still have been some doubts lingering about whether she would come back this season as dominant as she has been, especially after Laura Horvath bested Toomey-Orr by 10 points at the 2023 Rogue Invitational when she was six months postpartum.
But after this weekend in Knoxville, the question is starting to be less about whether Toomey-Orr will win her seventh CrossFit Games title this summer and more about by how much.
Featured image: Carlos Fleury